As response to the Golden Scarab
This is what we get when we combine several different cultural spheres without understanding these spheres...
Blood sacrifice
"So now it's on women to stop all violence and war, one cup full of our own blood at a time? How many gallons of women's blood is shed every day IN violence and war? But somehow our menstrual blood, which is not really much of a "sacrifice" to pour out (since it happens naturally without our will or intention) is magically the answer?"
Women shedding blood in wars and violence is not the same thing as women sacrificing their blood as a voluntary offer.
"We all know that blood is our life force (well, one of them) and that it carries the imprint of of DNA and who we are on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level. WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THAT AWAY?"
Your answer to what to do about this "natural happening" is "Just. Flush. It. Down. The. Toilet. Septic systems are already in place to hold human waste. Menstrual blood qualifies and human waste so just utilize the systems already in place. No, that septic system was probably not put into place with the Earth or the land's permission. You can make an offering (of anything but your bodily fluids) in gratitude for the septic system and to apologize for the human-centric way it was probably installed."
Blood is our life force that carries the imprint of who we are on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level, FLUSH IT DOWN THE TOILET AS THE HUMAN WASTE IT IS!
Excuse me, what?
Darling little girl... it surprises me that your culture doesn't associate any power to menstrual blood. It doesn't mean that there isn't any in it. Menstrual blood is considered blood magically. Except that it's better, because no-one needs to be cut to get it. It happens naturally, whether we want it or not. (Unless we are really malnourished, but if there are children, there's menstruation.)
Every bit of a human is magical equivalent of the whole human. Blood is life. Sacrificing blood - how ever it is collected - is sacrificing oneself.
I'd rather sacrifice it to Earth than the Holy Septic System and Wisdom and Technical Evolution of Man.
Human blood is one of the most magically charged ingredients there is in the world, and the fact that no violence or force was used to obtain it, makes it even more magical.
Moon Blood Offering
Moon Blood Ritual
"The Earth doesn't need anything from us to be nourished."
Raising my eyebrows here...
Basically that's true, we are just one sort of life crawling on this huge ball of materia, it doesn't NEED anything from us, it will survive all of us, and it will take what it needs. And to it, it doesn't matter if it's a ball of poison inhabitable for humans or not.
But WE need to nourish the Earth for OUR sake. Yes, it is a very human centered point of view. Last time I checked I was a human. And so are you. And all the other women who menstruate. It's kind of OK to be human centered.
But immature? Aren't you projecting something here, now? You need to understand that SHE is the Goddess, SHE is the Creator, She is the Mother - we are the creation, we are the product, we are the children, we are the needy ones here. We depend 100% of Her. She doesn't NEED us or our blood, she gets it anyway. The point here is that WE ARE SACRIFICING IT WITH THE INTENTION OF NOURISHING HER, not pouring it down the toilet letting the sanitation works take care of it the way it feels is best, which usually isn't very good for the Earth, and their intention is to earn as much money as they can, and they see earth as dirt they build their works on.
So, the Earth "needs" nourishment from us, more than She "needs" what most humans are giving Her right now, the exploitation and "human waste".
You are just being sanctimonious here, and you don't have the slightest understanding about how Old World Paganism works. You don't know anything about sacrifices and offerings to God. Your people might not have done anything of the kind. You most certainly haven't. This isn't any different from offering your tears to your ancestral spirits. Your tears are also "human waste", you know. This mineral infused water is also infused with pain. There are no tears not infused with pain, even "tears of joy and happiness" are infused with pain, of the fear of the future where this moment doesn't exist any more.
If you even bothered looking into the Menstrual Blood Sacrifices you would KNOW THEY INDEED ARE ASKING HER. But, you don't bother. You are just riding your high horses believing to be oh so smart and spiritual and caring about Earth more than we do, looking down on us. Sanctimonious.
"Menstrual blood is chaotic and not energetically nourishing."
Yours might be. Mine is not.
My menstrual blood is infused with me, who I am, what I am, "on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level", as you said. That is not chaotic nor is it something I "discard". The PHYSICAL function is discarding cellular material that is not needed. The SPIRITUAL function is what we give it. You think it's chaotic waste. I think it's my blood, my life force, part of me. It's part of the Red Earth I was made of, and I am returning it to the Mother without wasting pure water to flush it down.
Another thing you said was "The Earth is actually death-centered. That's what she does best-- she recycles death to give life and once that life is born (whether human, animal, plant, etc.) it starts to die." (Actually, I disagree with you there a lot, but to me death is just part of the natural cycle of life, things must die to give room for new things to be born, but it's all the same. I am a star is a flower is a wolf is water is stone is... Life. Energy.) But what this means is that the Earth doesn't care about the energies there are in the things she turns into new life. To Earth it is blood and tissue and other things. Organic matter. "Human waste", as you so eloquently put it. Shit is food I have taken everything that nourishes me, and it's literally things I don't want, need or care for, something discarded, something rejected, pure crap to me. Literally :-D But if you say that doesn't nourish the earth, the soil, the plants and microbes and all the other non-animal forms of life... Yeah... Believe you that, girl, if you choose to. :-D
Let me tell you a story. There once was a farmer who left a saucer of milk on a stone wall every evening. A visitor came to the farm, saw this and asked the farmer why he did this. The farmer said "That is to God, I thank Him for all the good things He has given me. He drinks it every night, in the morning the saucer is empty!" The visitor laughed at the simple man, and asked if they could see this with their own eyes. They hid in the bushes where they could see the saucer of milk, and - as one could guess - a fox kit leaped on the wall and drank the milk. The visitor laughed at the disappointed farmer, and the farmer swore to never leave another plate of milk to God. But when he was sleeping, God spoke to him. "I thought you gave the milk to me, and I could do what ever I pleased with it. I am God, I don't drink milk. But I have many children who do. That fox kit was left orphan and with your milk I could save its life."
"Does the Ancestral Guardian of the land want your blood?"
"it happens naturally without our will or intention"
The Ancestral Guardian of the land I live on gets my blood whether the Ancestral Guardian wants it or not.
The Ancestral Guardian wants to know I know it exists, the Ancestral Guardian wants my respect and love, the Ancestral Guardian wants me to not hurt the land. "Human waste" doesn't hurt land. A sacrifice, an offering, is a sign of respect and love and appreciation. The intention is to heal, to nourish, to not hurt. The Ancestral Guardian doesn't mind.
Also... "they are often very snippity and impatient/cold". Oh... I can understand how YOU have that experience of them.
"You could accidentally be making a blood oath with dangerous Earth Beings"
No, you couldn't. There's more in "making a blood oath" with beings than giving them an access to your blood. If there weren't, what kind of spirits have you made "blood oaths" with while you have been flushing down your blood in the toilet? How many used band-aids have you discarded without any care of who gets their hands on them? And all the other parts of you... how do you discard your nail clippings, or hair from your hairbrush, or urine, sweat, tears? How much of you have you dumped in the sewage without a care of what kind of dangerous swamp creatures you have made a DNA oath with? Get real, girl.
"It's not up to women to stop violent bloodshed with menstrual bloodshed"
I don't know about you, but I see myself as primarily a human, and it is up to me - as a human being - to do what I can to stop violent bloodshed. That I am a woman means that I can sacrifice blood without violence. Men can't do that. Unless one counts impromptu nosebleed as such.
"There's a story going around the internet that goes something like this: When enough women give their menstrual blood to the Earth, the Earth will stop taking men's blood in war."
Something like this. You mean “It is prophesied that when all women are giving their blood back to the Earth in a sacred way, men will come home from war and earth shall find peace.”
Firstly, as Abraham Lincoln said, don't believe everything you read in the internet. There is no references to any "Hopi prophecies" like this, and I haven't found any reference to that prophecy before 2015
Secondly, there is this: Feeding the Tree Ritual
there is this: Reclaiming Our Wise Blood
There's this: Blood Mysteries
So... perhaps the "women should sacrifice their menstrual blood to feed the bloodthirsty earth to stop violence" myth IS part of the patriarchaic society, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE SHOULD STOP SACRIFICING OUR MENSTRUAL BLOOD. What if it was designed to influence women who would stop ANYTHING if they thought it would support the patriarchaic society?
And here you go telling people the best place for their menstrual blood is the sewage and the best thing to do with it is "Just. Flush. It. Down. The. Toilet."
You know nothing, Darla Antoine. You know nothing.
"Donate blood from your veins to a blood bank. Get over your fear of death and spirits and learn how to help spirits move on who are hanging around because of violent and sudden deaths (love and light isn't enough. You need to learn to work with Death and make Death a spiritual ally). Moving these spirits over helps clean up the Earth's energetic field and lessens the human chaos and emotions that are informing everything from the weather to the collective consciousness. Donate money. Raise children with consciousness. Adopt a child. Hold prayer circles. March in protest. Vote with your money."
We do. How dare you to just assume the women who offer their menstrual blood to earth don't do anything else? HOW DARE YOU!!! Sanctimonious.
"These small, everyday actions will actually do something to help create equality and world peace. Pouring your menstrual blood out will not."
And how would you know.
"Go through the steps listed above: ask the Earth. Ask the Ancestral Guardian of the land. Ask the spirit of the plant or tree you want to leave you offering with. If you get yes's from all of these beings, and if you're certain there are no other beings living at that spot, that could take your blood, go ahead and offer your blood to the Earth! I totally understand why you would want to honor your body and the Earth in that way. I just also want you to think critically and realize that it's a two-way street and you should ask for permission from the other parties involved first."
So you're backstepping. It would have been nice if you had just shared your concern about the practice and that people involved in it might not be thinking certain important things, but, no, you write a whole blog entry about YOU SHOULDN'T!!! BECAUSE MENSTRUAL BLOOD IS DISGUSTING AND SHOULD BE FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET AND YOU ARE DISRESPECTING THE EARTH AND ANCESTRAL SPIRITS AND I KNOW BETTER AND [more sanctimonious crap].
I don't give a crap about you "totally understanding". Your understanding is not required, asked for, wanted or needed. What about asking US if we want your "understanding" before you offer it? :-D
Especially when you don't understand the activity you are condemning and criticizing and getting your knickers in twist about.
What about The Red Tent Movement?
"While I admire The Red Tent Movement"
Who cares?
"I question their story of origin"
Red Tent is (probably) the invention of Anita Diamant, based on the information in the Bible and the theory of menstrual synchrony. Women thought the idea was amazing (which it is) and created a tradition around it. It doesn't matter that it's a modern tradition, it is a tradition, and totally valid and authentic.
This is part of what Anita Diamant based her book on.
In modern studies they haven't been able to find any evidence supporting the theory of menstrual synchrony, but it is part of the feminine myths among several peoples, among others the Aborigins of Australia.
"The typical length of time between the first day of one period and the first day of the next is 21 to 45 days in young women, and 21 to 31 days in adults (an average of 28 days). Bleeding usually lasts around 2 to 7 days."
But it's called "menstruation", isn't it? And why do so many women associate it with moon and moon phases, if there really isn't anything to support that theory? The moon is sort of constant. It takes some 28-29 days to go around this planet (a month) and has phases and every phase lasts for about a week - which is where we got the week from.
Modern women live secluded from the moon. We usually don't even notice it, unless it's especially noticeable. Not so in the history. We have all this moonlore.
Maybe it's all hogwash and wishful thinking. Maybe they knew something we don't. Maybe their life situation was different from ours resulting in certain phenomena we aren't aware of today with out modern lifestyle. What do I know?
"I cannot find any evidence that our ancestors ever gathered together to bleed under the New Moon and to share stories."
As you then continue with "first of all, second, thirdly..." I assume you give those reasons as why you think the idea isn't very probable.
Ok, then.
"ancient women didn't bleed as often as we modern women do"
How would you know? We know NOTHING about how much and often the ancient women bled. In fact, Leviticus (written some 500-600 years b.c.) say women bled about 7 days. with 28 days between the first days of bleeding. Sounds like what happens today.
"We are better nourished"
Again, how would you know? A lot of modern women either starve themselves or eat nutritional crap, like a lot of fat, starches and sugar. A lot of fat people are malnourished.
"we have less children"
Hmm... you know... you have to menstruate to get pregnant. If they had a lot of children, they also menstruated pretty regularly.
"giving us more time and energy to bleed"
A lot of modern women also have means to reduce this bleeding time, because no-one has "time and energy to bleed". Besides, it's natural, as you say. Women bleed, today and in the history and they will bleed in the future as well.
"as most camp/house labor was the realm of women"
Hmm...
"and most ancient women supposedly bled simultaneously, that would have left the majority of the women's work to be done by children, women who were pregnant or recently gave birth, women too malnourished to menstruate, older women who had gone through menopause, or, most likely, by slaves -- slaves that were probably denied a red tent experience of their own. That doesn't sound right or kind"
So... it couldn't happen, because it doesn't sound right or kind? ROTFLMAO
For your information, men are fully capable of taking care of "women's work" if they have to. Men have been to hunting trips and whatnot, there's priesthood where women were considered a taboo so much so that ANY female, from a baby to a 100 years old crone, weren't allowed in the premises. Someone did the "women's work", and this someone wasn't a female. Most likely an apprentice. You might want to look into the history of butlers, valets, pages and acolytes.
" we need to be asking ourselves the following questions: How did they energetically prepare the space for bleeding? How did they energetically clear the space after each bleed? How did they ask for permission from the land? What did they give the land in return (besides their blood). How did they close this space when it was time to pack their tents or teepees and move on?"
Why? If this was a historical fact, no-one recorded it, so there's no way of knowing the answers to these questions. Secondly, "gathering together to bleed under the New Moon and to share stories" doesn't require any of that. You are confusing two separate things. Red Tent tradition isn't associated with the sacrifice of menstrual blood tradition. The Jewish women of the Patriarch time would probably have "Flushed. It. Down. The. Toilet.", that is disposed it the same way they disposed their pee and poo. Maybe they burned the wool or rags or plant matter or what ever they used to gather the stuff in. Maybe they just bled into their clothes and washed the clothes. One doesn't bleed that much, really... it just feels like a lot. An average blood amount during a period is about 20-60ml. (1-3 tbls).
"Ok, but I still want to connect to the Earth as a woman."
No OK. No-one needs your permission or advice to keep sacrificing their blood to Earth, and after all that, I don't much care about your "advice". Ever heard that thing about unsolicited advice? Google it.
Frankly, the only thing you may do is to tell people why YOU don't sacrifice your menstrual blood.
"You can lay down on the Earth, your belly pressed against Hers, and just breathe. Whether you're bleeding or not."
OH NO, I CAN'T DO THAT, WHAT IF I ACCIDENTALLY BLEED ON HER!!!!!!
This is what we get when we combine several different cultural spheres without understanding these spheres...
Blood sacrifice
"So now it's on women to stop all violence and war, one cup full of our own blood at a time? How many gallons of women's blood is shed every day IN violence and war? But somehow our menstrual blood, which is not really much of a "sacrifice" to pour out (since it happens naturally without our will or intention) is magically the answer?"
Women shedding blood in wars and violence is not the same thing as women sacrificing their blood as a voluntary offer.
"We all know that blood is our life force (well, one of them) and that it carries the imprint of of DNA and who we are on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level. WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THAT AWAY?"
Your answer to what to do about this "natural happening" is "Just. Flush. It. Down. The. Toilet. Septic systems are already in place to hold human waste. Menstrual blood qualifies and human waste so just utilize the systems already in place. No, that septic system was probably not put into place with the Earth or the land's permission. You can make an offering (of anything but your bodily fluids) in gratitude for the septic system and to apologize for the human-centric way it was probably installed."
Blood is our life force that carries the imprint of who we are on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level, FLUSH IT DOWN THE TOILET AS THE HUMAN WASTE IT IS!
Excuse me, what?
Darling little girl... it surprises me that your culture doesn't associate any power to menstrual blood. It doesn't mean that there isn't any in it. Menstrual blood is considered blood magically. Except that it's better, because no-one needs to be cut to get it. It happens naturally, whether we want it or not. (Unless we are really malnourished, but if there are children, there's menstruation.)
Every bit of a human is magical equivalent of the whole human. Blood is life. Sacrificing blood - how ever it is collected - is sacrificing oneself.
I'd rather sacrifice it to Earth than the Holy Septic System and Wisdom and Technical Evolution of Man.
Human blood is one of the most magically charged ingredients there is in the world, and the fact that no violence or force was used to obtain it, makes it even more magical.
Moon Blood Offering
Moon Blood Ritual
"The Earth doesn't need anything from us to be nourished."
Raising my eyebrows here...
Basically that's true, we are just one sort of life crawling on this huge ball of materia, it doesn't NEED anything from us, it will survive all of us, and it will take what it needs. And to it, it doesn't matter if it's a ball of poison inhabitable for humans or not.
But WE need to nourish the Earth for OUR sake. Yes, it is a very human centered point of view. Last time I checked I was a human. And so are you. And all the other women who menstruate. It's kind of OK to be human centered.
But immature? Aren't you projecting something here, now? You need to understand that SHE is the Goddess, SHE is the Creator, She is the Mother - we are the creation, we are the product, we are the children, we are the needy ones here. We depend 100% of Her. She doesn't NEED us or our blood, she gets it anyway. The point here is that WE ARE SACRIFICING IT WITH THE INTENTION OF NOURISHING HER, not pouring it down the toilet letting the sanitation works take care of it the way it feels is best, which usually isn't very good for the Earth, and their intention is to earn as much money as they can, and they see earth as dirt they build their works on.
So, the Earth "needs" nourishment from us, more than She "needs" what most humans are giving Her right now, the exploitation and "human waste".
You are just being sanctimonious here, and you don't have the slightest understanding about how Old World Paganism works. You don't know anything about sacrifices and offerings to God. Your people might not have done anything of the kind. You most certainly haven't. This isn't any different from offering your tears to your ancestral spirits. Your tears are also "human waste", you know. This mineral infused water is also infused with pain. There are no tears not infused with pain, even "tears of joy and happiness" are infused with pain, of the fear of the future where this moment doesn't exist any more.
If you even bothered looking into the Menstrual Blood Sacrifices you would KNOW THEY INDEED ARE ASKING HER. But, you don't bother. You are just riding your high horses believing to be oh so smart and spiritual and caring about Earth more than we do, looking down on us. Sanctimonious.
"Menstrual blood is chaotic and not energetically nourishing."
Yours might be. Mine is not.
My menstrual blood is infused with me, who I am, what I am, "on an ancestral, energetic and cellular level", as you said. That is not chaotic nor is it something I "discard". The PHYSICAL function is discarding cellular material that is not needed. The SPIRITUAL function is what we give it. You think it's chaotic waste. I think it's my blood, my life force, part of me. It's part of the Red Earth I was made of, and I am returning it to the Mother without wasting pure water to flush it down.
Another thing you said was "The Earth is actually death-centered. That's what she does best-- she recycles death to give life and once that life is born (whether human, animal, plant, etc.) it starts to die." (Actually, I disagree with you there a lot, but to me death is just part of the natural cycle of life, things must die to give room for new things to be born, but it's all the same. I am a star is a flower is a wolf is water is stone is... Life. Energy.) But what this means is that the Earth doesn't care about the energies there are in the things she turns into new life. To Earth it is blood and tissue and other things. Organic matter. "Human waste", as you so eloquently put it. Shit is food I have taken everything that nourishes me, and it's literally things I don't want, need or care for, something discarded, something rejected, pure crap to me. Literally :-D But if you say that doesn't nourish the earth, the soil, the plants and microbes and all the other non-animal forms of life... Yeah... Believe you that, girl, if you choose to. :-D
Let me tell you a story. There once was a farmer who left a saucer of milk on a stone wall every evening. A visitor came to the farm, saw this and asked the farmer why he did this. The farmer said "That is to God, I thank Him for all the good things He has given me. He drinks it every night, in the morning the saucer is empty!" The visitor laughed at the simple man, and asked if they could see this with their own eyes. They hid in the bushes where they could see the saucer of milk, and - as one could guess - a fox kit leaped on the wall and drank the milk. The visitor laughed at the disappointed farmer, and the farmer swore to never leave another plate of milk to God. But when he was sleeping, God spoke to him. "I thought you gave the milk to me, and I could do what ever I pleased with it. I am God, I don't drink milk. But I have many children who do. That fox kit was left orphan and with your milk I could save its life."
"Does the Ancestral Guardian of the land want your blood?"
"it happens naturally without our will or intention"
The Ancestral Guardian of the land I live on gets my blood whether the Ancestral Guardian wants it or not.
The Ancestral Guardian wants to know I know it exists, the Ancestral Guardian wants my respect and love, the Ancestral Guardian wants me to not hurt the land. "Human waste" doesn't hurt land. A sacrifice, an offering, is a sign of respect and love and appreciation. The intention is to heal, to nourish, to not hurt. The Ancestral Guardian doesn't mind.
Also... "they are often very snippity and impatient/cold". Oh... I can understand how YOU have that experience of them.
"You could accidentally be making a blood oath with dangerous Earth Beings"
No, you couldn't. There's more in "making a blood oath" with beings than giving them an access to your blood. If there weren't, what kind of spirits have you made "blood oaths" with while you have been flushing down your blood in the toilet? How many used band-aids have you discarded without any care of who gets their hands on them? And all the other parts of you... how do you discard your nail clippings, or hair from your hairbrush, or urine, sweat, tears? How much of you have you dumped in the sewage without a care of what kind of dangerous swamp creatures you have made a DNA oath with? Get real, girl.
"It's not up to women to stop violent bloodshed with menstrual bloodshed"
I don't know about you, but I see myself as primarily a human, and it is up to me - as a human being - to do what I can to stop violent bloodshed. That I am a woman means that I can sacrifice blood without violence. Men can't do that. Unless one counts impromptu nosebleed as such.
"There's a story going around the internet that goes something like this: When enough women give their menstrual blood to the Earth, the Earth will stop taking men's blood in war."
Something like this. You mean “It is prophesied that when all women are giving their blood back to the Earth in a sacred way, men will come home from war and earth shall find peace.”
Firstly, as Abraham Lincoln said, don't believe everything you read in the internet. There is no references to any "Hopi prophecies" like this, and I haven't found any reference to that prophecy before 2015
Secondly, there is this: Feeding the Tree Ritual
there is this: Reclaiming Our Wise Blood
There's this: Blood Mysteries
So... perhaps the "women should sacrifice their menstrual blood to feed the bloodthirsty earth to stop violence" myth IS part of the patriarchaic society, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE SHOULD STOP SACRIFICING OUR MENSTRUAL BLOOD. What if it was designed to influence women who would stop ANYTHING if they thought it would support the patriarchaic society?
And here you go telling people the best place for their menstrual blood is the sewage and the best thing to do with it is "Just. Flush. It. Down. The. Toilet."
You know nothing, Darla Antoine. You know nothing.
"Donate blood from your veins to a blood bank. Get over your fear of death and spirits and learn how to help spirits move on who are hanging around because of violent and sudden deaths (love and light isn't enough. You need to learn to work with Death and make Death a spiritual ally). Moving these spirits over helps clean up the Earth's energetic field and lessens the human chaos and emotions that are informing everything from the weather to the collective consciousness. Donate money. Raise children with consciousness. Adopt a child. Hold prayer circles. March in protest. Vote with your money."
We do. How dare you to just assume the women who offer their menstrual blood to earth don't do anything else? HOW DARE YOU!!! Sanctimonious.
"These small, everyday actions will actually do something to help create equality and world peace. Pouring your menstrual blood out will not."
And how would you know.
"Go through the steps listed above: ask the Earth. Ask the Ancestral Guardian of the land. Ask the spirit of the plant or tree you want to leave you offering with. If you get yes's from all of these beings, and if you're certain there are no other beings living at that spot, that could take your blood, go ahead and offer your blood to the Earth! I totally understand why you would want to honor your body and the Earth in that way. I just also want you to think critically and realize that it's a two-way street and you should ask for permission from the other parties involved first."
So you're backstepping. It would have been nice if you had just shared your concern about the practice and that people involved in it might not be thinking certain important things, but, no, you write a whole blog entry about YOU SHOULDN'T!!! BECAUSE MENSTRUAL BLOOD IS DISGUSTING AND SHOULD BE FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET AND YOU ARE DISRESPECTING THE EARTH AND ANCESTRAL SPIRITS AND I KNOW BETTER AND [more sanctimonious crap].
I don't give a crap about you "totally understanding". Your understanding is not required, asked for, wanted or needed. What about asking US if we want your "understanding" before you offer it? :-D
Especially when you don't understand the activity you are condemning and criticizing and getting your knickers in twist about.
What about The Red Tent Movement?
"While I admire The Red Tent Movement"
Who cares?
"I question their story of origin"
Red Tent is (probably) the invention of Anita Diamant, based on the information in the Bible and the theory of menstrual synchrony. Women thought the idea was amazing (which it is) and created a tradition around it. It doesn't matter that it's a modern tradition, it is a tradition, and totally valid and authentic.
This is part of what Anita Diamant based her book on.
19 “Whenever a woman has her menstrual period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her during that time will be unclean until evening.Everything that touches her is "ceremonially unclean", everything she touches is "ceremonially unclean". And it doesn't matter if she is a free woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a slave. She is "ceremonially unclean" and it is highly contagious. In the Jewish life of the time when the Book of Moses were written, doing ceremonies while ceremonially unclean was catastrophic; it might cause your death, even the misery of the whole tribe! So you didn't risk it.
20 Anything on which the woman lies or sits during the time of her period will be unclean.
21 If any of you touch her bed, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
22 If you touch any object she has sat on, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
23 This includes her bed or any other object she has sat on; you will be unclean until evening if you touch it.
24 If a man has sexual intercourse with her and her blood touches him, her menstrual impurity will be transmitted to him. He will remain unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies will be unclean.
Leviticus 15:19-33
In modern studies they haven't been able to find any evidence supporting the theory of menstrual synchrony, but it is part of the feminine myths among several peoples, among others the Aborigins of Australia.
"The typical length of time between the first day of one period and the first day of the next is 21 to 45 days in young women, and 21 to 31 days in adults (an average of 28 days). Bleeding usually lasts around 2 to 7 days."
But it's called "menstruation", isn't it? And why do so many women associate it with moon and moon phases, if there really isn't anything to support that theory? The moon is sort of constant. It takes some 28-29 days to go around this planet (a month) and has phases and every phase lasts for about a week - which is where we got the week from.
Modern women live secluded from the moon. We usually don't even notice it, unless it's especially noticeable. Not so in the history. We have all this moonlore.
Maybe it's all hogwash and wishful thinking. Maybe they knew something we don't. Maybe their life situation was different from ours resulting in certain phenomena we aren't aware of today with out modern lifestyle. What do I know?
"I cannot find any evidence that our ancestors ever gathered together to bleed under the New Moon and to share stories."
As you then continue with "first of all, second, thirdly..." I assume you give those reasons as why you think the idea isn't very probable.
Ok, then.
"ancient women didn't bleed as often as we modern women do"
How would you know? We know NOTHING about how much and often the ancient women bled. In fact, Leviticus (written some 500-600 years b.c.) say women bled about 7 days. with 28 days between the first days of bleeding. Sounds like what happens today.
"We are better nourished"
Again, how would you know? A lot of modern women either starve themselves or eat nutritional crap, like a lot of fat, starches and sugar. A lot of fat people are malnourished.
"we have less children"
Hmm... you know... you have to menstruate to get pregnant. If they had a lot of children, they also menstruated pretty regularly.
"giving us more time and energy to bleed"
A lot of modern women also have means to reduce this bleeding time, because no-one has "time and energy to bleed". Besides, it's natural, as you say. Women bleed, today and in the history and they will bleed in the future as well.
"as most camp/house labor was the realm of women"
Hmm...
"and most ancient women supposedly bled simultaneously, that would have left the majority of the women's work to be done by children, women who were pregnant or recently gave birth, women too malnourished to menstruate, older women who had gone through menopause, or, most likely, by slaves -- slaves that were probably denied a red tent experience of their own. That doesn't sound right or kind"
So... it couldn't happen, because it doesn't sound right or kind? ROTFLMAO
For your information, men are fully capable of taking care of "women's work" if they have to. Men have been to hunting trips and whatnot, there's priesthood where women were considered a taboo so much so that ANY female, from a baby to a 100 years old crone, weren't allowed in the premises. Someone did the "women's work", and this someone wasn't a female. Most likely an apprentice. You might want to look into the history of butlers, valets, pages and acolytes.
" we need to be asking ourselves the following questions: How did they energetically prepare the space for bleeding? How did they energetically clear the space after each bleed? How did they ask for permission from the land? What did they give the land in return (besides their blood). How did they close this space when it was time to pack their tents or teepees and move on?"
Why? If this was a historical fact, no-one recorded it, so there's no way of knowing the answers to these questions. Secondly, "gathering together to bleed under the New Moon and to share stories" doesn't require any of that. You are confusing two separate things. Red Tent tradition isn't associated with the sacrifice of menstrual blood tradition. The Jewish women of the Patriarch time would probably have "Flushed. It. Down. The. Toilet.", that is disposed it the same way they disposed their pee and poo. Maybe they burned the wool or rags or plant matter or what ever they used to gather the stuff in. Maybe they just bled into their clothes and washed the clothes. One doesn't bleed that much, really... it just feels like a lot. An average blood amount during a period is about 20-60ml. (1-3 tbls).
"Ok, but I still want to connect to the Earth as a woman."
No OK. No-one needs your permission or advice to keep sacrificing their blood to Earth, and after all that, I don't much care about your "advice". Ever heard that thing about unsolicited advice? Google it.
Frankly, the only thing you may do is to tell people why YOU don't sacrifice your menstrual blood.
"You can lay down on the Earth, your belly pressed against Hers, and just breathe. Whether you're bleeding or not."
OH NO, I CAN'T DO THAT, WHAT IF I ACCIDENTALLY BLEED ON HER!!!!!!
